It’s not my place to tell you how to feel about Obama. He was certainly competent and effective in many ways, and if you feel that makes him, “good,” fine. However, he used drones to assassinate American citizens, he created an opaque drone warfare program that Congress has no oversight over, and he prosecuted more people under the Espionage Act than all other presidents combined, none of whom were actual spies.

Whether you believe he was justified in these actions or not, they have downstream consequences, all of which benefit Trump. When Obama criticizes Trunp for attacking journalists, it is more than fair to point out that hypocrisy. We have an authoritarian president right now, and if we’re ever going to take back power from him, we’ve got to acknowledge how we got here and take corrective action.

Nothing happens overnight, and it’s not being edgy to point out how we got here. Bush got us accustomed to an unending wat on, “terrorism,” Obama used drones to target terrorists in any nation without national approval, and now Trump will deport protesters for aiding terrorism and bomb Yemen over signal.

Bush attacked the Press for, “giving aid and comfort,” to our enemies, Obama prosecuted leakers and publishers under the Espionage Act, and now Trump will openly bully publications he doesn’t like with frivolous lawsuits and threats of prosecution. History didn’t start in January.

I’m a big Nintendo apologist. I’ve argued in the past that their consoles are the only ones worth buying over a gaming PC (not including Steamdeck there), and while I have never defend their terrible IP practices, I have been willing to overlook it and continue buying their products. This shit is indefensible. The price hike would be bad enough, but killing off physical games is a disgrace. Nintendo fans should be angrier than everyone else, not defending this shit.

That’s definitely part of it. I would say the trucks that are literally becoming unglued (while the CEO is figuratively) are causing equal, if not greater, damage.

I think that’s true for some of them, mostly the Wall Street folks who have enough diversified wealth to buy a lot of stock during the crash and wait it out. But I think the start-up folks, who’s companies have often never been profitable, and rely entirely on investors over-inflating their value to survive, are freaking the fuck out right now. And I think Trump is just legitimately dumb, doesn’t understand that a trade deficit doesn’t mean America is losing money, and genuinely doesn’t understand tariffs.

Yeah, for sure, fascist regimes have a pretty short shelf-life in general because of cronyism and incompetence. I’m just saying there’s nothing inherent to fascism that should be tanking the economy right now in the way, say, a communist revolution would by causing capital flight. If he wasn’t pushing the worst, most unnecessary trade war in history, Trump could have a strong economy right now.

I find it deeply funny that fascism is completely compatible with capitalism (it’s arguably its end-state), but they’re still tanking the economy because Trump doesn’t understand tariffs.

The Proud Boys are more like the Brownshirts: useful for the rise of fascism, but ultimately, a disposable group that was never going to get any real power under the regime. The way ICE is acting is more analogous to the SS or Gestapo: an unaccountable group of government goons that disappear undesirables and dissidents.

He’ll find a way to back out. Musk is stupid, but not that stupid.

Reminder that the Post Office is only losing money because of a 2006 law that forces them to fund their retirement plan for 75 years in advance, which is an insane burden that no nother agency or private corporation undertakes. Also, even if it does lose money, it doesn’t matter because the USPS isn’t a business. It’s a government service provided for the public good.

If the independent calculations are correct, DOGE has cut $8 billion in government spending. 20% of that, divided amongst 350 million Americans, would be $4.57. If DOGE’s claims are correct (and they’re not), they cut $55 billion, which would be $31.43. Even if DOGE met it’s goal of $2 trillion, that would be $1,142.86, which would be a significant one time payment for a lot of Americans, but wouldn’t offset the loss of Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, a functioning Post Office, etc.

Honestly, this is the one I’m least worried about. It doesn’t sound like anyone who wasn’t about to retire is taking the deal. I’m more worried about congressionally allocated funding being impounded, federal bureaucrats being illegally fired, and Doge’s massive security breaches in the Treasury and IRS.

You’re not wrong about Netanyahu, but Biden and Harris both played into his hands with an appeasement strategy, and we should absolutely blame them for that.

Astrology daughter. NFT son will be bankrupt in your basement, no matter what. Astrology daughter might marry a rich guy.

You understand that things change over time, right? Silicone Valley tech giants like Facebook had an extremely cozy relationship with Obama, and they’ve been heavily involved with Democratic politics for years.

Now they’re pivoting right; Zuckerberg didn’t donate to Harris this year, even though he’d donated $400 million to Democrats the previous election cycle, and he’s now adopting Trump’s, “anti-woke,” bullshit. Musk, who made a killing on Obama’s electric vehicle subsidies, is now doing Nazi salutes at Trump’s inauguration.

A lot of this has to do with how social media algorithms are driving people down right-wing conspiracy rabbit holes. Democrats blame a lot of their losses since 2016 on, “fake news,” and online misinformation, and have begun demanding small amounts of accountability from tech giants. In response, the tech industry has been slowly moving rightward over the last eight years, and now seem to fully embrace Trump.

So, yes, California is basically owned by tech oligarchs, and it is also mostly run by Democrats. Until very recently, those two groups weren’t at odds, and now that they are, we are just beginning to see what that conflict will mean for California and the rest of the country.

Boy, this, “Jury Nullification,” thing sure sounds like it would give everyday Americans a dangerous amount of power of our judicial system! I hope the media writes a lot more articles about it so that more people are aware of this terrible, terrible thing that they should never, ever do.

Before joining Lemmy: “It really doesn’t matter what instance you join, you’ll be able to see content from all over.”

After joining Lemmy: “So you’ve enlisted in .world, eh? Welcome to the fight, soldier!”

Definitely something punk…either the Interrupters Take Back the Power or Flogging Molly’s What’s Left of the Flag.

It’s very interesting that pro-Luigi posts are immediately and universally censored while pro-Jan. 6th posts are given a lot more leeway. Both were attacks on powerful members of the ruling class, but only one group of sympathizers is being completely shut down. It’s tempting to think that it’s because tech billionaires have a right-wing bias, but I actually think it’s worse than that. I think it’s because the January 6th riots represented a partisan divide, while Luigi’s (alleged) actions have received bipartisan sympathy. Apparently, violence and terrorism are acceptable unless they lead to class solidarity.

Why would the U.S. have started trying to expand democracy after the Cold War? They were willing to support anti-Democratic coups in Iran, Syria, Brazil, Iraq, Bolivia, and probably dozens of others I’m forgetting. America was promoting capitalism during the Cold War, not democracy.